Swiss Experimental Films 1962 – 1974

Speakers: Fred Truniger and Thomas Scharer
Discussant: Meenakshi Shedde

March 5, 6 and 7, 2011 | 6.30 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

In collaboration with Swiss Arts Council – Pro Helvetia, ReservoirFilm

Swiss Experimental Films is a curated package of films illustrating the history of new cinema that emerged in the 1960s in Switzerland. The “Neuer Schweizer Film” (New Swiss Cinema) became internationally renowned and till today the Swiss film industry refers to the ‘film wonder’ of this era. Not much has been written or discussed on the undercurrents of this new cinema that decisively determined the split from the old filmic traditions and made the wonder possible in the first place. In 2005-2006 Reservoirfilm, a Zurich based collective of curators for experimental cinema, started investigating into the history of Swiss experimental film movements and found a wealth of forgotten avant garde material that has been restored and screened for the public. In the Mumbai chapter, the curated screenings will coincide with conversations between the film curators Fred Truniger and Thomas Schärer and the film critic, Meenakshi Shedde.

Fred Truniger was trained as a film historian and is currently working as a cultural critic at different universities in Switzerland. In 2005 he co-founded Reservoirfilm, a free collective of curators for film mediation to organise shows and discussions on experimental and art films in several Swiss cities.

Thomas Schärer studied History and Film at the universities of Zürich and Berlin (FU). Currently, he is preparing together with Fred Truniger and François Bovier – a research project about experimental films in Switzerland (Schweizer Filmexperimente 1950-1988).

Meenakshi Shedde is an independent film critic, director and journalist who also writes on gender and developmental issues.